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ON THE 



LIFE AND SERVICES 



OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 



AN 



(ZBulDgium, 



PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF EASTPORT, MAINE, 



BY 



DR. LEONARD MCPHAIL, U. S. A, 



A P R I r, 15, 1811 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY B. B. MUSSEY 

EASTPORT : JOHN BECKFORD. 

1841. 



ON THE 



LIFE AND SERVICES 



OP 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 



AN 



etilogium. 



PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF EASTPORT, MAINE, 



BY 

c 

DR. LEONARD M^PHAIL, U. S. A. 



APRIL 15, 1841. /I-A - ' •' 



■.'3 A 



^. 



BOSTON: ■ 
PUBLISHED BY B. B. MUSSEY. 

EASTPORT: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN BECKFORD 

184L 



BOSTON : 

WM. A. HALL AND CO. 
PRINTERS. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Eastport, April I2lh, 1841. 
Sir: 

The undersigned have been directed by the citizens of Eastport 
to invite yon to deliver an address in this town on the occasion of the 
death of the president of the United States. 

If your convenience will admit, we shall be happy to have the address 
delivered on Thursday next. 

We have the honor to be, respectfully, 

Your obedient Servants, 

I. D. Andrews, 
A. Hayden, Jr. 
John Beckford, 
Joseph Gonnison, 
Leonard Shaw. 

To Dr. Leonard C. McPhail, U. S. A. Fort Sullivan. 

Fort Sullivan, Eastport, April \Wi, 1841. 
Gentlemen : 

Your note, inviting me, on the part of the citizens of Eastport, 
to deliver an address on the occasion of the recent death of the presi- 
dent of the United States, is received. 

Honored by so great a mark of your confidence, I would be insensible 
to the general grief that fills the land on the death of so illustrious a 
patriot, were I to refuse. I would, however, one more worthy were 
chosen to give utterance to appropriate sentiments on the occasion ; but 
as the choice has devolved upon me, I can only promise to meet the 
wishes of the citizens in the best manner the shortness of the time and 
my engagements will allow. 

Respectfully your obedient Servant, 

Leonard C- McPhail. 
Messrs. I. D. Andrews, ^ 
A. Hayden, Jr. I 
John Beckford, J> Committee. 
Joseph Gunnison, 
Leonard Shaw, . 



Eastport, April Ibth, 1841. 
Sir: 

Permit us, in behalf of the inhabitnnts of Eastport, to offer to 

you our hearty thanks for the interesting and eloquent oration on the 

life and character of General William H. Harrison, late president of 

the United Slates, delivered this morning. We respectfully request a 

copy of the oration for publication. 

Understanding that you are about to leave this post, we embrace this 

opportunity to assure you of our most sincere wishes for your future 

health and prosperity. 

With great respect. 

We have the honor to be 

Your obedient Servants, 

Israel D. Andrews, ^ 

John Beckford, I ^ .j, ^ 

_. I LommiUee of 

Joseph Gcnnison, V . 

^ _, I Arrangements. 

Leonard Shaw, j 

A. Hayden, Jr. J 

To Dr. Leonard C McPhail, U. S. A. Fort Sullivan. 



Fort Sullivan, Eastport, April \bth, 1841. 
Gentlemen : 

I have received your request, on the part of the citizens of East- 
port, for a copy, for publication, of the Eulogy on William Henry Har- 
rison, pronoimced by me on the late occasion in observance of the sad 
event that has deprived our country of his Inestimable worth and highly 
valuable services. It would be more in consonance with my own feel- 
ings were I to refuse ; but, constrained by such manifestations of desire 
on the part of the community, conveyed in the truly friendly terms of 
your note, I yield to )'our solicitations. The shortness of the notice 
gave me but little time for its preparation, and any merit it may pos- 
sess is rather to be attributed to the noble subject of the theme than to 
the language itself. 

I cordially reciprocate the wishes for future health and prosperity, 
conveyed to me in the pleasing terms of your not©, and remain, 

Very respectfully. 

Your obedient Servant, 

Leonard C. McPhail. 
Messrs. I. D. Andrews, ^ 



John Beckford, 
Joseph Gunnison, ^Committee. 
Leonard Shaw, 
A. Hayden, Jr. 



EULOGIUM. 



The angel of death has spread his murky wings 
over the capital of the land ; and these symbols of 
mourning but too sadly attest that the shadows of 
oblivion have fallen upon the great and good ! 

Why these badges of grief? why these shrouded 
banners ? why these tearful eyes ? A people mourn ! 
What sounds are those, — the slow, martial tread, the 
notes of the muffled drum, the wailing blast of the 
trumpet, the booming of the minute-gun, — that are 
heard upon every fir-clad mountain, and in every 
verdant valley, of our wide-spread country? 'Tis a 
nation that groans in sorrow for her illustrious dead ! 

It was a usage, in the palmiest days of the Egyptian 
empire, that no one was entitled to the rights of hon- 
orable sepulture against whom an accusation could 
justly lie. The corpse of the departed was brought 
into the assemblage of the people, and proclamation 
made for all who knew aught against the deceased to 
speak : if none appeared, or it passed the judgment of 
the dead, it was given over to embalmment,' and a 
place allotted him among his kindred ; but, if his life 
were ill spent, the corpse was denied an honorable 



8 



notice, and cast away into a common sewer, or left a 
prey to the jackal and the vulture. I need not ask 
with what triumphant honor would the body of Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison pass such an ordeal ! If a life 
devoted to his country, an unbounded love of civil 
and religious virtue, an unalloyed patriotism, charac- 
terized by deeds of noble valor and eminent civil 
service, can secure renown, he has it ! — a renown 
which will outlive that of the Pharaohs and the 
Ptolemies, when the gathering sands of the Lybian 
waste shall have swallowed up the pyramids raised to 
receive their bones. Embalmed in the recollections 
of his age, and entombed in the hearts of his country- 
men, his memory is destined to float along the stream 
of time to the latest posterity. 

The illustrious subject of our eulogium was born on 
the 9th day of February, 1773, at Berkley, on James 
river, about twenty-five miles below Richmond, in the 
then colony of Virginia. He was the third and 
youngest son of Benjamin Harrison, a distinguished 
citizen of the commonwealth, and lineal descendant of 
the Harrisons who so nobly opposed the usurpations of 
Charles I. of England, and shone so conspicuous, as 
champions of civil and religious right, throughout the 
turbulent times of the Stuarts. His father was a 
delesatc to the continental consress, and one of the 
chief founders of our republic. He was chairman of 
the committee of the whole house when the Declara- 
tion of Independence was agreed to ; and his name is 
inscribed upon that imperishable instrument, whose 
talismanic influence aroused the dormant energies of 
a people determined to be free, broke asunder the 



shackles of British despotism, and placed us amongst 
the independent nations of the earth. 

The father died before the son had attained the age 
of manhood ; and he fell under the guardianship of the 
celebrated Robert Morris, a co-worker with his sire in 
the labors for independence. He was diligently quali- 
fying himself for the study of medicine, when the din 
of war, sounding along our then western border, called 
him from the allurements of the academic shade to 
share the privations and dangers of the tented field. 
At the early age of nineteen he received from Gen. 
Washington the commission of a subaltern in the army 
destined to operate against the confederated tribes of 
Indians, urged to hostilities by the emissaries of Great 
Britain, which power, in non-compliance with treaty 
stipulations, still held possession of certain parts of 
our acknowledged territory. The defeat of Gen. St. 
Clair had just taken place, and the Indians, flushed 
with victory and glutted with spoil, threatened the 
extermination of the whole of the pioneer inhabitants. 

Ensign Harrison joined at Fort Washington, now 
Cincinnati. It was at this time, perhaps, he caught 
the first sight of that noble stream for which the older 
French settlers conceived such an affection that, in the 
fervor of their feelings, they called it La Belle Riviere. 
Let us contemplate him as he stood for the first time 
upon its grassy banks, looking down upon its rich 
green waters. The stripling youth ! Look upon that 
noble brow, pensive with thought ! Is it of home and 
kindred, of an affectionate mother, beloved sisters and 
brothers, left behind, he thinks? Surely they have a 
share of his thoughts ; and the home of his childhood^ 
2 



10 



and the sports of his youth, and the gambols of infan- 
cy, cannot be forgotten. But he is looking into 
futurity, and meditating the time when cities shall 
rise upon its reedy margin, as if by the touch of the 
enchanter's wand, and beautiful villas and farm-houses 
enliven its wild prospects ; when its forests shall re- 
sound to the rifle of the huntsman, and the aged oaks 
bow their heads to the sturdy blows of the pioneer, 
raising his log cabin in the wilderness, and becoming 
the forerunner of civilization ; when the Iiusbandman 
shall turn up in his furrow the bones of a departed 
race, and rest upon his plough to contemplate the 
remains of the savage lords of the mountain and the 
stream, who 

" Once roamed the wild woods free." 

Perhaps he is thinking of the extension of the repub- 
lic, and conceiving those schemes of improvement 
which have left their impress upon half the States of 
the Union, and which have been felt by all. Perhaps 
his mind's eye is resting upon the oft-read page of 
Rome's history, and 

" A tale of the times of old ! the deeds of the 
Daj's of other years," 

is reflected from memory's glass. Is he thinking of 
the day when the name, American, shall be as proud a 
boast as was that of Roman in tlie halcyon times of the 
republic, before the bitter strifes of party leaders had 
paved the way for Cicsar to assume the imperial 
diadem and purple ? He does not think of the coming 
time when he shall be settled down upon the spot 



11 

where he now stands, after a Hfe of turmoil and strife 
with the world and its creatures, whilst sitting be- 
neath " his own vine and his own fig-tree," called to 
direct the armies of a mighty nation ; to marshal her 
hosts for victory; to save a large country from the 
blighting desolation of war; to snatch the thunder 
from the invader, and drive him home with his own 
shafts of destruction; and, returning in peace, settle 
the government and establish the laws of his country 
over an extensive territory. Does he think, when 
" the clarion no longer calls to arms," he shall be sum- 
moned to a seat in the councils of the nation, to shed 
the hght of his reason upon the work of legislation, or 
to be sent abroad as a representative of our system to 
a newly regenerated people? Can he be looking 
forward to the time when, retired with his head 
silvered with age, and his fame almost obscured in 
the strife of party warfare, he shall be called, like 
Cincinnatus, from the plough, to have the robes of 
office put on, his neglected sword wreathed wnth 
honor, and his aged brovv's decked with laurels, gath- 
ered by his countrymen from every verdant hill-side 
of this wide-spread land ? It may be he is conjuring 
up those lessons of maternal virtue taught by a noble 
mother, or those of hatred to oppression, taught by a 
patriot father, which looked to the enfranchisement of 
the whole human race ; or perhaps he is making those 
hish resolves to do and act as becomes a man and a 
patriot, and leave the rest to God, which, sooner or 
later, bring the rich rewards of self-approval, and the 
proud testimonies of popular favor. 

When the youthful soldier first joined the array, his 



12 



slender form and juvenile appearance attracted the 
attention of his more robust associates, and they ad- 
vised him not to encounter the hardships of a service 
for which he seemed unsuited, and more fitting for a 
"carpet knight," that 

" Capers nimbly in a lady's chamber 
To tlie lascivious pleasings of a lule." 

But, if the body were weak, it was supported by a 
vigorous mind, a bold determination, an indomitable 
bravery and cool courage, the surest presages of suc- 
cess. He was soon intrusted with the command of 
escorting and foraging parties, the perils of which, in 
an Indian warfare, can only be appreciated by those 
who have shared their dangers. In all he was suc- 
cessful. 

When he first entered the army it was deemed 
womanish not to be able to drink and frolic. But, 
early seeing the ill effects of intemperance and dissipa- 
tion, he eschewed these vices, and thus laid the foun- 
dation of those habits of sobriety and good conduct 
that insured him strength to bear the fatigues of war, 
and hardened into iron a constitution naturally feeble. 

In 1793, having been promoted to a lieutenancy, 
he joined the new levies under Gen. Wayne, a hero 
whose impetuous valor had acquired for him, during 
the revolutionary contest, the cognomen of '•' Mad 
Anthony," but Avhose prudence and sagacity were 
only exceeded by his courage. The general, an ex- 
cellent judge of human character, selected the lieuten- 
ant as his aid ; in which delicate and responsible 
situation he served throughout the war, with satisfac- 



13 



tion to his chief, advantage to his brother oflicers, and 
credit to himself. He was present when the bones of 
the slain in St. Clair's defeat were recovered and in- 
tered with appropriate solemnities ; and, for his volun- 
tary services on this melancholy occasion, not less 
noble than were his actions in the battle-field, he re- 
ceived the commendations of the general commanding. 

It were useless to recount the numerous acts of 
heroism that distinguished the still youthful soldier, 
in the various engagements had with our Indian ene- 
mies in the war of 1793. They are a part of the 
history of the settlement of the AVest, and adorn many 
of its brightest pages. Degraded, indeed, must the 
American be who would stigmatize as cowardly the 
conduct of one whom a Wayne has recorded as 
"faithful and gallant;" craven the soul that w^ould 
doubt the testimony borne him by one to whom honor 
was a jewel beyond all price, and truth his every rule 
of action ! 

About the close, of the war he was left in command 
of Fort Washington, on the site where now stands the 
emporium of the West. Having risen to the rank of 
captain, he married the daughter of John Cleves 
Symmes, the founder of the Miami settlements. In 
this lady he ever found an affectionate wife, and fond 
mother-of his children : a woman endeared to him by 
the recollections of his early struggles, in which she 
was his companion. Her hands have often bound up 
the deep wounds inflicted upon his honor by the en- 
venomed tooth of the serpent party ; her tongue has 
poured the healing balm of consolation upon a spirit 
often bruised by the ingratitude of his fellow-men. It 



14 



is she wlio has sustained him in tlic hours of corporeal 
suffering and mental anguish. In sickness, or in 
heaUh, the same devoted wife ; the partner of his 
losses or his triumphs, his reverses or his joys. Let us 
hope that, now " the silver thread is parted, and the 
golden bowl broken at the fountain," she may find, in 
the consolations of our holy religion, solace in this her 
sore affliction ; and, in the spontaneous offering of her 
countrymen, a soothing balm to heal a wounded 
heart ! 

In 1797, Capt. Harrison resigned his commission 
in the military service, and entered upon the duties of 
his civil appointment, as territorial secretary, and cx- 
officio lieutenant-governtDr of the Northwestern Terri- 
tory, under the governorship of General St. Clair. The 
year subsequent, he was called upon by his fellow- 
citizens to represent them in the congress of the 
United States. His first action, as a congressional 
delegate, was to mature and suggest a bill for the more 
equitable distribution of the public lands, whereby the 
rich heritage of the God of nature was prevented from 
passing into the hands of the heartless capitalist and 
speculator, and secured to the honest yeomanry. And 
rich indeed have been the fruits of this act of fore- 
thought policy ! Lands, which would have been an 
almost boundless waste under the old system, passing 
from broker to broker as cards dealt by the gamester, 
with ever and anon the ruin of some poor victim de- 
luded by the glittering chances of deceitful fortune, 
are now teeming with wealth. Fields waving with 
the golden grain of summer, orchards dropping the 
rich fruits of autumn, greet the sight of the traveller 



15 

with smiling plenty ; whilst mines of inexhaustible 
wealth open their sure treasures of iron, and copper, 
and coal, and lead, to the hardened hand of industry. 
Mines, richer by far than the diamond valleys of the 
East, or the rivers that pour down their golden sands, 
or the mountains which embosom their silver secrets. 
Did our limits permit, we might draw the contrast 
between the present state of our West, with what it 
would have been had not Mr. Harrison's views been 
seconded; but time grows apace, and we cannot 
trespass upon your patience. At least a baronial state 
of society might have been engendered, fitting the 
giant schemes of a Burr, wherein a few human lords, 
with their slavish serfs, would have been the only in- 
habitants of what was destined for the emigrant from 
every quarter of the globe. You might have had 
the castellated turret, and the moated wall, frowning 
defiance to the law, and pouring out their hirelings or 
slaves for the subversion of the republic. Whereas, 
you now have the farm-house of the husbandman, or 
the cottage of the vine-dresser ; the one with his stock 
browsing upon the hill-side, the other with his trel- 
lissed vines drooping with purple and gold. You 
would not have had the bonny Switzer, from his moun- 
tains blue, with his unalloyed love of "liberty and 
Tell ; " the German, with his lore and legends of 
" fader-land ; " the Italian, with his music and his 
song ; the Iberian, with his light romance and dark 
reality ; the Frank, with his gay look and merry 
dance ; the Briton, with his genuine hospitality ; the 
Scotsman, and his frugahty ; and the happy Milesian, 
and his merry laugh ; — no ! But at every turn you 



1(3 



might have had the armed retainer, guarding the 
game of his lordly master; or the lord himself with his 

" Dissembling courtesie." 

liOok at the picture now ! Behold those fair cities 
of the West! See "the wilderness blossom as the 
rose ! " View the steam spirit, as she glides like a 
graceful swan : 

" She walks the waters like a thing of life," 

descending the father of rivers, where, little more 
than half a century ago, the Indian or hunter alone 
paddled along in his frail canoe ! Whence all this 
improvement ? It is the result of wise legislation, 
stimulated by the master mind of Harrison, before the 
bane of party had been infused into our government, 
which poisons our circulation, and sickens to the 
heart. 

Mr. Harrison, at this time, served but one year in 
congress. On the division of the Northwestern Ter- 
ritory into those of Ohio and Indiana, he was made 
governor of the latter, and superintendent of Indian 
affairs West. In the discharge of the delicate duties 
that devolved upon him in these relations, he made 
some enemies ; but they were among the worshippers 
of Mammon, who sought to enrich themselves at the 
expense of the Indian, the emigrant, or soldier. He 
exposed their schemes of fraud, punished their un- 
righteous acts, and defended the intended victims of 
delusion from their machinations. Hence their enmi- 
ty. Whilst superintendent of Indian affairs, he made 
several treaties, and by them gained largely to the 



17 



United States, but never, as more lately it is feared 
others have done, at the expense of national faith, and 
for private aggrandizement. So scrupulously honest 
was he, that he would not be the keeper of the funds 
necessary to effect the objects of his various missions ; 
and, in all the multifarious transactions, requiring 
money for their accomplishment, in which he has 
been engaged, every cent has been duly accounted 
for ! What a contrast to present practices ! yet what 
a noble commentary upon his moral training ! In 
1806, the signs of disaffection among the tribes of 
Indians upon our immediate border were shown ; but 
they did not become portentous of evil until some 
time after. Governor Harrison, however, thus early 
mistrusted the Shawanese, and set a watch upon 
Tecumthe and Olliwachica, twin brothers, who, al- 
though they were not chiefs by birth, yet were master 
spirits by nature, and had acquired a great ascendency 
over their tribe. These two Indians conceived the 
bold project of uniting into one the various tribes of 
the continent, for the purpose of staying the tide of 
emigration of the whites, that was fast washing out 
the foot-prints of their red forefathers, by establishing 
a line, beyond which no pale face should come. They 
appealed powerfully to the passions of the savage, and 
worked strongly upon his superstitious belief. They 
represented to him but too truly, that the white man 
had turned his face to the setting sun ; and, if some- 
thing were not effected soon, the hunting grounds 
which knew him then would hav^e soon departed from 
him forever. They called upon him by the spirit of 
his fathers slain in contests with the whites ; they 

o 
O 



18 



invoked liis love of ancestral pride, ever strongest in 
the Indian's breast ; frenzied him to madness by the 
story of his people's wrongs ; held before him glitter- 
ing prospects of future renown as a successful warrior; 
or promised him, in the name of the Great Spirit, a 
blissful existence in perennial hunting grounds beyond 
the dark river of death, should he be slain in battle. 
The torch of war was lit ; and, if the policy of the 
government extinguished it, 't was but for a season ; 
for the notes of the war-song had not fallen unheeded 
on the savage ear. A few years more, and the lurid 
glare of the Indian's torch shone upon a thousand hills, 
and his war-cry rung its terror again in every valley 
and glen of the West. It wes echoed from the South; 
and the Creeks dug up the hatchet, and prepared to 
join the league. 

This was the state of the Indian affairs in 1811, 
when Governor Harrison determined to strike a blow 
that should be felt by the confederated Indians, — an- 
ticipating their warlike movements, — unless they should 
promptly lay down their arms, and submit to the au- 
thority delegated over them. In pursuance of this 
object, he marched upon Tecumthe and the prophet's 
towns, which he reached in November. He had ar- 
rived to within a few miles of the latter, when he was 
met by a demand for parley, as preliminary to a peace- 
ful submission. Acting from the purest motives of 
humanity, and a desire to mitigate the horrors of war, 
he consented to stay his progress, and agreed upon the 
morrow to meet the chiefs in friendly council. Know- 
ing, however, the wiliness and treachery of the foe, 
the best possible dispositions were made to prevent a 



19 



surprise, and the camp was pitched with a view to 
defence. The men were ordered to lie upon their 
arms, and the additional precaution taken of throwing 
out sentinels to an unusual distance. It was near day ; 
the general and his aids, as was their usual custom, 
were already arisen and accoutred ; the men were still 
slumbering, but soon the stirring sounds of the reveille 
would have trailed them up. When the alarm was 
given, it had become a pitchy darkness, from floating 
clouds and a drizzly rain. At first, a single musket 
from a watchful sentry announced the danger nigh, 
when it came in a shower of lead, followed by the 
dreadful war-whoop of the savages, who now sur- 
rounded the camp. The voice of the governor, loud 
and shrill, was heard above the tumult ; and soon, 

" By torch and trumpet fast array'd, 
Each horseman drew his battle blade, 
And furious every charger neigh'd, 
To join the dreadful revelry ! " 

The cracking of the rifle and the rattling of the mus- 
ketry were continuous, when the light of morning 
came to unmask the enemy. A charge was ordered, 
and led by the gallant Boyd. The Indians gave way 
before the bayonet and the sabre, and the fight ended. 
The battle of Tippecanoe had been fought and won ! 
This is the action about which much has been un- 
necessarily said, as if the hero's fame rested upon this 
single feat. That it was a victory, as complete as 
victories over Indians usually are, all who are acquaint- 
ed with savage warfare know. The testimony of 
President Madison to •' the collected firmness which 
distinguished their commander, on an occasion requir- 



20 



jiig the utmost exertion of valor and discipline," is 
complete. 

Immediately after the declaration of war against 
Great Britain, to which our country had been im- 
pelled, to resist the arrogant pretensions and outrageous 
conduct of that power, Governor Harrison set about 
with diligence to place the country entrusted to him 
in a proper state of defence, and its citizens in an 
attitude to strike the enemy, or repel his blows. In 
his exertions, he was ably seconded by Governor Shel- 
by — himself a soldier of the Revolution — and the 
noble chivalry of Kentucky. He refused the commis- 
sion of brigadier-general in the service of the United 
States, because it would place the troops he had raised 
under an oflicer who had not their entire confidence. 
After some difficulty, the command of the whole 
northwestern army was entrusted to him. And I 
hazard nothing in saying, a more difficult service was 
never more brilliantly performed, since the days of the 
Revolution, by any officer, than were the campaigns 
made by Gen. Harrison in the Northwest. With 
the most limited resources and raw levies, he literally 
chased the British from our soil, and carried the war 
into Canada ; thus retrieving the disgrace that had 
fallen upon our arms by the shameful surrender of 
Hull, and placing the whole western border in a state 
of comparative security. 

Time will not allow me even to pass rapidly in 
review the gallant actions of the army of the North- 
west. Suffice it to sa3'-, that the defence of Fort 
Stephenson, by the gallant Croghan, has no parallel in 
the history of the late war. The repulse of the enemy 



21 

before Fort Meigs, under the eye of the commander-in- 
chief, the taking of Maiden and Sandwich, and the 
recovery of Detroit, by the general and Governor Shel- 
by, shine out upon the pages of impartial history. 
Then comes the crowning victory, achieved at the 
battle of the Thames. Nobly sustained by Johnson 
and his Kentuckians, the British were captured, and 
the Indians killed or dispersed. At this fight fell 
Tecumthe, and the league of the federated tribes was 
broken, and their alliance with the British severed. 

After all these brilliant services, the general was 
doomed to disappointment. Constant interference on 
the part of the civil heads of the military bureau at 
Washington, that have so often marred the operations 
of the army in the field since, became intolerable. He 
could no longer bear with the insolence of office which 
gives no redress, and resigned his commission. In this 
he acted as became a soldier of the republic. 

Although he had left the military service, Gen. Har- 
rison continued to serve his country in an useful ca- 
pacity. As negotiator with the Indians he made with 
them treaties of amity, which, conceived in a proper 
spirit, have all been religiously observed by the 
Indian. As a commissioner for the settlement with 
them, under the treaty of Ghent, he gave entire satis- 
faction. 

In 1816, Gen. Harrison entered congress as a rep- 
resentative from the State of Ohio. The calumnies 
uttered against him for his conduct in the late war 
here underwent a searching investigation, and ended 
in his triumphant vindication from all censure. The 
committee, of which the late Vice-President Johnson 



22 



was chnirman, unanimously reported that he was fault- 
less, and bore testimony to his worth in a high com- 
pliment to his patriotism, disinterestedness, and devo- 
tion to the pubhc service. The resolutions to give 
him a gold medal, and the thanks of congress, which 
had been deferred, were now taken up, and passed the 
senate unanimously, and received the concurrence of 
the liouse of representatives with but one dissenting 
voice. After having passed some years in retirement, 
he was again called, in 1S24, to public duty, — the 
legislature of Ohio sending him as a senator to con- 
gress. Both as a representative and as a senator, he 
shed the light of his superior judgment upon many 
questions of national polity ; but a good system of 
defence he considered the most important measure to 
which he could direct his attention, and devoted much 
time to that object. Had his views been met, it would 
not now be a question of peace or war with Great 
Britain, but one of proud defiance to her boasts. 
Maine would be in the possession of her inalienable 
rights, and the piratical violators of international law, 
in the affair of the Caroline, at Shlosser, would not go 
unwhipped of justice. 

As a legislator. Gen. Harrison stood upon the only 
proper ground. He was no automaton, to move when 
others pulled the wires, nor a statue of marble, like 
the oracle of Delphos, to speak the cunningly devised 
words of a crafty priesthood. The wishes of the peo- 
ple, when clearly understood, he always made known, 
as became their representative ; but, when votes come 
to be taken, his was always found recorded where the 
representative's should ever be, in accordance with his 



23 



own convictions of benefit or wrong to the whole 
Union, and not of a sectional faction. The doctrine of 
instrnction, that buffoonery of the pohtical farce, meets 
with no countenance from men of enlarged views of 
our republican system, and the machinery of party or 
sectional interests, worked by the leaders of the mob, 
manufacture no opinions for them ; they act from their 
own innate sense of right or wrong, and are guided by 
all the lights of reason that the God of nature may 
have given them. 

Gen. Pfarrison was called by President Adams, in 
1828, to be our minister to the newly-formed republic 
of Colombia. A change of administration, however, 
soon recalled him. Although he served in this diplo- 
matic capacity but a short time, he gave good evi- 
dences of his fitness for the station. Foreseeing the 
condition of things that would arise if Gen. Bolivar 
yielded to the solicitation of his surrounding flatterers, 
before leaving South America he addressed to him that 
famous letter, so rich in its classical allusions, and so 
prophetic in its warnings. He bid the regenerator of 
his countrymen to emulate the example of Washing- 
ton. Knowing his fondness for military pomp and 
display, and the inevitable ruin to republican simplici- 
ty and grace which their seductions bring, he told him, 
in truth, that the fame of the Pater Patrice, rested not 
so much upon his military achievements as upon his 
eminently great civic services. Had his advice been 
taken, we would not now have to look upon the dis- 
membered fragments of a whole that were destined to 
form a great nation, nor recoil in horror from the con- 
templation of a picture of anarchy and ruin, with vil- 



24 



lages sacked by contending factions, and cities whose 
streets run crimson with fraternal blood, and whose 
places blanch with the bones of the ignobly slain. 
The fame of the hero of Venezuela and Ayachucho 
would not now be obscured, but, like a bright star, 
would be shedding its pure light upon a prosperous 
and happy people ! 

On his return home. Gen. Harrison found it neces- 
sary to apply himself assiduously to the management 
of his private affairs, which had greatly suffered from 
his almost undivided attention to the public weal, to 
the neglect of his own. The produce of his farm at the 
North Bend was found inadequate to the support of a 
numerous family of relatives, whom the dispensations 
of Providence had placed under his care, and whom 
he conceived his pious duty to foster and protect. To 
enable him to do this, and to continue his wonted 
open-housed hospitality, he was induced to accept the 
clerkship of a county court. Although, subsequently, 
untold thousands were within his grasp by the i)ower 
of the law, yet he yielded his rightful claims to im- 
mense property, because it could not be wrested from 
the possessors without producing distress and ruin to 
them, who would have been innocent sufferers, having 
purchased from a wrongful owner. He preferred, with 
nobleness of soul, an independence secured by the 
blessings of the people, to a fortune wrung from others 
in bitterness and tears. 

In 1836 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the 
presidential chair. His views and principles, however, 
had become known, and we find him in 1810 borne 
along a resistless tide of popularity to the highest hon- 



25 



ors of the republic. It was not the machinery of 
faction, worked by the dogs of party whipped into the 
treadmill by self-interested and office-seeking masters, 
that gained his election ; he was the choice of the 
people, and would have been elected without the aid 
of conventions, whose anti-republican tendency is be- 
coming felt in the neglect of modest merit and the 
advancement of the ambitious demagogue, 

■' Sans peur et sans reproche." 

He leaned for support upon the pillars of the republic, 
inscribed with the records of his fame, and a nation's 
gratitude lifted him into the seat of state. 

Called by the people to preside over their destinies, 
his journey from North Bend was one continued fete. 
As the Franklin rounded, to receive her rich freight, it 
seemed 

" Like a burnished throne 



Borne on the water ; " 

and, as it bore him away from the crowded shore, 
amid the roar of artillery, the shouts of the multitude, 
and the strains of triumphant music, the tear started 
to his eye, and coursed down his war-worn visage. 
He was looking for the last time upon his homestead, 
and caught the last glimpse of the partner of his 
bosom, as she waved him on to honor and renown ! 

The country poured out its embrowned industry, 
cities their multitudes of glad and happy hearts ; 
arches, gayly decked with evergreen, rose in the magic 
of a night, and bent over his path, strewn with flow- 
ers by the hands of innocence ; the bells rang out 
their merry peal, the cannons poured forth a welcome 
4 



4 



26 



i'rom their brazen throats, the musketry their fire of 
joy ; but, loud above all, rose the shout of the sire and 
the son, the matron and the maid, — Harrison and 
liberty ! The flags waved gayly in the freshening 
wind, the banners danced in joy, and the " conqueror 
of hearts " moved on ! 

He stands upon the giant steps of the capitol ! Be- 
fore him, the collected wisdom of the nation, — be- 
side him, the councillors of state and ministers of 
justice and religion, — behind him, the war-worn vet- 
erans of the republic, — near him, the representatives of 
the pomp, and power, and chivalry of Europe, — around 
him, the people ! in one vast sea of heads, a living 
ocean of patriotism and feeling. 'T is done ! He has 
sworn to defend the Constitution and the laws ; he is 

the PRESIDENT OF THE UnITED StATES OF AmERICA. 

Feeling the responsibilities of his station, and anx- 
ious to justify the expectations of his countrymen, he 
had set him down to develope the policy of his admin- 
istration, and put the seal of acts upon his professions. 
He had been scarcely a short month in ofRce, when 
the Almighty, who has said, " All flesh shall perish 
together, and man shall turn again into dust," arrested 
him on the threshold of his labors. The fiat had gone 
forth ! He was marked as golden grain, fit for the 
scythe of Time ! Human skill could avail nothing ; 
for " who can number the clouds in wisdom ? or who 
can stay the bottles of heaven, when the dust groweth 
into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together ? " 

April had come in, with its sunlight and its showers, 
and the feathered songsters had begun to tune their 
throats in gladness for the return of spring, in the bud- 



27 



ding myrtle and blossoming orange groves of the sunny 
South ; but the film of obscurity was fast gathering 
over the eyes of the patriot, warrior, and statesman, 
and the death-watch ticking the receding moments in 
his ears. Yet he met the grim king of terrors, who 
comes so often to others clothed in doubts and fears, 
as a welcome harbinger of peace and happiness in a 
life to come. Familiar with death in its most terrible 
forms upon the ensanguined battle-field, often witness 
to its ravages in the domestic circle, he met it as be- 
came a Christian warrior, a sage, and philosopher. On 
the evening of the 3d of April, 1841, as life was ebbing 
fast, he turned his dying look upon a friend, and, as if 
addressing his successor, said, in a distinct voice, " Sir, 
I wish you to understand the true principles of the 
government ; I wish them carried out : I ask nothing 
more." A few moments after midnight, his spirit bid 
adieu to earth, and took up its abode in heaven. 

William Henry Harrison is no more ! I have 
briefly traced him on his journey of life, from the 
cradle to the grave. I have shown him to you in no 
borrowed light, but in the rich eflulgence of his own 
character, replete in all the elements of a virtuous citi- 
zen, a great warrior and statesman. I have held him 
forth to you in every relation of life ; — as a dutiful son, 
and aflectionate husband, and kind parent ; as a sol- 
dier and commander, a governor, lawgiver, and ruler ; — 
in all, a model of domestic virtue, of manly dignity 
and unflinching courage, of republican simplicity and 
grace ; an example worthy to be emulated by the 
youth of America. 



28 



He is gone ! but his memory shall endure forever ! 

"Give to the earth his frame! 

'T was bom but to decay: 
Not so his deathless fame ; 

That cannot pass away ! 
In youth, in manhood, and in age, 
He dignified his country's page." 

Noble by nature, and illustrious by deeds of valor 
and patriotism, he is IMMORTAL by the universal 
consent of the friends of liberty and equality through- 
out the world ! 



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